In-Game Blog, Phils-Nats, 9/23
Hey everyone. Well, the Phillies have a chance to have the best three-city road trip in team history at about the best possible time in history if they can sweep the Nats today.
At the moment I'm putting together a graphic box that will appear in Monday's paper chronicling all of the records J-Roll has either set or is pursuing when it comes to N.L. shortstops. It's a pretty impressive list - one that has a whole lot of Ernie Banks records being threatened or broken. That's pretty heady company.
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I wanted to offer a belated congratulations to Jim Thome, who picked up his 500th career HR in style by making it a walk-off job on his Bobblehead Figurine day at Comiskey. Big Jim is one of the all-time class acts. In many ways he reminds me of Delco's own Mickey Vernon - modest, unassuming, but intense and fervent when it comes to playing the game with dignity and a team-first attitude.
Speaking of Big Jim, I can't remember where I read this, but some chucklehead somewhere on the Internets actually said he didn't consider Thome Hall-of-Fame material, with one of his main gripes being that Thome "doesn't even have 2,000 career hits yet."
I can't stress enough the level of stupidity of that comment. First of all, Thome's hits are lower than some other power hitters because he is one of the all-time best at drawing walks (he's 19th all-time with 1,450-plus walks). Thome's .281 career average is 10-25 points higher than 500-HR and HoF members Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, McCovey, Mathews ... he even has a higher BA than Banks (.274).
Bucks Co. super backup Kevin Cooney informs me that ESPN uberdork Rob Neyer was the guy who claims that Thome needs 600 HRs to get in the Hall. Typical. This is the same toolbag who went onto Amazon.com a few years ago and used a pseudonym to rip apart some guy's book on Fenway Park ... when coincidentally he had written a Fenway book a few years earlier that I think sold 14 copies. And the big irony of this is that Neyer is a big SABR head, which would lead you to believe that he would embrace Thome's penchant for walks and consider him an underrated guy who deserved more All-Star and MVP consideration than he has received.
There are people in this line of work that make you wish you weren't in this line of work. Rob Neyer is one of those people.
At the moment I'm putting together a graphic box that will appear in Monday's paper chronicling all of the records J-Roll has either set or is pursuing when it comes to N.L. shortstops. It's a pretty impressive list - one that has a whole lot of Ernie Banks records being threatened or broken. That's pretty heady company.
---
I wanted to offer a belated congratulations to Jim Thome, who picked up his 500th career HR in style by making it a walk-off job on his Bobblehead Figurine day at Comiskey. Big Jim is one of the all-time class acts. In many ways he reminds me of Delco's own Mickey Vernon - modest, unassuming, but intense and fervent when it comes to playing the game with dignity and a team-first attitude.
Speaking of Big Jim, I can't remember where I read this, but some chucklehead somewhere on the Internets actually said he didn't consider Thome Hall-of-Fame material, with one of his main gripes being that Thome "doesn't even have 2,000 career hits yet."
I can't stress enough the level of stupidity of that comment. First of all, Thome's hits are lower than some other power hitters because he is one of the all-time best at drawing walks (he's 19th all-time with 1,450-plus walks). Thome's .281 career average is 10-25 points higher than 500-HR and HoF members Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, McCovey, Mathews ... he even has a higher BA than Banks (.274).
Bucks Co. super backup Kevin Cooney informs me that ESPN uberdork Rob Neyer was the guy who claims that Thome needs 600 HRs to get in the Hall. Typical. This is the same toolbag who went onto Amazon.com a few years ago and used a pseudonym to rip apart some guy's book on Fenway Park ... when coincidentally he had written a Fenway book a few years earlier that I think sold 14 copies. And the big irony of this is that Neyer is a big SABR head, which would lead you to believe that he would embrace Thome's penchant for walks and consider him an underrated guy who deserved more All-Star and MVP consideration than he has received.
There are people in this line of work that make you wish you weren't in this line of work. Rob Neyer is one of those people.
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